About Geek and Jock

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The journey from the start to where we are now has been an interesting one.

We’ve had many changes in focus, to ensure we could provide the greatest help to the widest audience.

And as of May 2013, we’re now beginning our Online Community experience – JOIN US too




So The Starting Point

It’s not until you really discover more about your inner self that you realize just what being a man is really all about.

Society tends to place a wide and varying degree of perceptions on what a guy is …. Tough, rugged, afraid of no one, hunter, fighter, forceful, sexual predator, sex-maniac, pervert… You name it and guys often get labeled with derogatory terms.

With that said, let’s move on with me …..

Martin Cooney

Martin Cooney in South Africa
Here I am in South Africa
Cool huh, for an Aussie boy

I discovered purpose and passion late in life, in my 40s. Prior to this, I’d lived the life of an average guy in a traditionally ‘Corporate’ working life – traveling through the finance sector, discovering Information Technology in the early ’80s, self-employed consultant, and ending up as Vice President of a 50-odd staffed department of Customer Support technicians for Australia’s largest web hosting company.

And then the company started downsizing which left me unemployed after 9 years – kinda typical in ‘dog eat dog’ Corporate World. Married for (then) 20 or so years with a tremendous son, Ethan, and living life on a 1.5-acre block – so weekends were essentially mowing grass, home maintenance, and what I’d call now an average lifestyle.

Discovering that ‘inner self’

And then I stumbled across an entrepreneurial group called (then) XL Results Foundation, around 2004.

However, the real eye-opener was his wealth profile as a Supporter.

The modern-day and apt description of what this profile type means is Leader, in the true sense of the word.

Values such as love, relationships, integrity, honesty, and compassion in the top ten life values. It was an incredible journey in meeting many like-minded people from around the world with similar motivations and goals.

Manhood journeys … Mental journeys … Spiritual journeys … Financial journeys … Relationship journeys … Mate-ship journeys … and even Travel journeys, though those were really very very cool.

I went through a multitude of personal and business development courses and seminars, met some profoundly vital and spiritually aware people as well as exorcised quite a few of my own personal demons. And all of this was a fantastic experience, for what I’d call myself as a pretty average kind of guy.

I participated in 1 and ‘crewed’ in 3 Entrepreneur Business School XL Events in Bali over the following years which is where my love for Bali stems from. And, in fact, my South African-born wife and I had our first date in Bali in April 2009.

With a number of other XL Life Members, I teamed up with them in a startup Financial Rewards and Debit Card system named Cashflow Community in early 2008. Initially, I was bringing my IT expertise and quickly moved into a more relationship-based area of Corporate Relations and IT Director.

There were a number of great lessons for me with Cashflow and, unfortunately, the financial markets at the time combined with a number of external factors required me to leave Cashflow Community to look for greener pastures.

Discovering someone I thought incredible

So becoming officially divorced for the first time in 2008, and after 6 months of sorting myself out in the relationship headspace, I decided I also needed to get back onto the ‘dating wagon’.

Yikes, this was scary too.

I’ve touched briefly on this period of time in a number of posts too.

To cut a long story short, I discovered my 2nd wife Pam on Facebook of all places, on February 12th, 2009.

We traveled to Bali, I traveled a few times to Cape Town, South Africa and we married and were living (for the time being) in Brisbane, Australia.

Unfortunately, after a number of years together, it was never meant to be and we’ve now split up. But that’s life and things need to move forward for each of us.

The vehicle

I’ve been searching for that right vehicle to help others and, by chance, an idea popped out around helping guys over 40.

A small idea that literally flourished over the course of a week. And since then, the more we let others know of the concept, the more people simply fall in love with our site – it’s a movement that continues to grow each day.

With all my ups and downs in life, I was sure those experiences would be a huge benefit to other guys and gals.

If I’ve been through it then I’m also positive there’s a huge number of other people around the world that could well use advice and the advice of others who have their own answers and thoughts in helping others.

And helping others is what makes the world tick.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As I mentioned in the opening, society these days tends to also alienate guys from peer support groups, unlike women. Our ladies are conversational creatures by nature – and that’s a fantastic thing.  While I have my own ‘personal non-relationship blog‘ for tech stuff, I saw a very real need for something else.

The realization is Geek and Jock need to retain the fundamentals of balance.

Where once the site was about Men Over 40, it morphed into Just for Men since age is irrelevant when we need support. And then the ‘balance’ came into play – how can we really support men alone when women are the balance point and the other side that needs to also be heard?

Now it’s time for everybody to come together and do exactly the same so we’re able to face challenges and live our lives as they were truly meant to be – in harmony with both genders and the world as one.

 

 

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